TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: All is not well for Goa’s Amit Shah —Satish Dhond– as majority of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s state unit leaders have turned out against him.
Senior leaders including Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar held a crucial meeting on Thursday to shunt the organizational secretary out of Goa. Party sources told Herald that the state leaders have strongly opposed Dhond’s presence in the party for the very reason that he has been interfering with the government’s decisions.
“He (Dhond) has been running a one-person parallel government and interfering in every decision of the government. Many cabinet ministers and legislators were upset with him and had been often complaining about Dhond’s diktat to their higher ups,” one of the party leaders, who attended the high-level meeting disclosed.
Interestingly, the meeting was attended by Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar, Union Minister for AYUSH Shripad Naik and BJP National General Secretary Satish Velankar besides Parsekar and a few seniors. The meeting will continue for another two days where opinions of party legislators will be taken into consideration.
“We want him anywhere but Goa. Just the way he was shunted to Gujarat years ago, we want the party throw him out of the state unit again,” the source said.
Dhond was recently targeted of plotting attack on Vishnu Surya Wagh more than a year ago. The St Andre legislator’s wife Aruna had openly accused Dhond of plotting to have her husband attacked.
“(Police) should take my words on record that Dhond gave ‘supari’ to (BJP legislator Kiran) Kandolkar to attack Vishnu,” she was quoted as saying at a public rally. Wagh had escaped with minor injuries and his car was smashed with stones and metal rods by the mob, while he was returning from a function at Tivim on December 24, 2013.
CM elusive on Tendulkar’s term
PANJIM: Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar has hinted that state unit president Vinay Tendulkar may continue his term, even as views of members of the executive and core committees, and the legislators are being taken into consideration.
“As per the party rules, a person can repeat his/her term, once which means serving the post for a total six years. But view points of other members in the party has to be taken,” he said speaking to Herald to a question whether Tendulkar will continue his term, which comes to an end in September. Parsekar, however, declined to confirm whether Tendulkar will be given another chance to serve as president of the party in the state.
The party will soon undergo a major restructuring in a bid to prepare for the ensuing 2017 state assembly elections.
